McCain: Brennan hold possible over Benghazi questions

2/24/13 9:57 AM EST

Sen. John McCain on Sunday held out the possibility of a Senate hold on John Brennan's nomination to head the CIA over the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The Arizona Republican said he'd examine his options after his questions have been answered by the White House, but wouldn't rule out placing a hold on Brennan's nomination.

"Look, I don't want to put a hold on anybody. But the American people deserve answers about Benghazi. There are so many questions that are still out there, including what was the president doing the night Benghazi happened?" McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"He needs to answer these questions. And they say, why now? It's the only time we have maximum leverage -- that's just a fact of life around Washington," McCain said.

The senator also repeated questions that came up during Brennan's Senate intelligence committee hearing.

"Mr. Brennan said that he was opposed to waterboarding and torture, but at the same time he said it had saved lives," McCain said. "I'd like to know what lives were saved, because the information I have is it saved no one's life. There's a lot of misinformation."